Hazel "The Well-being Boat" (1913)

Hazel was donated by Claire and Peter Stone in 1988. They had been living aboard in London for about 10 years but when their third child arrived it was clear that the family had outgrown the boat. They moved on to the land. Peter and Claire could have sold the boat for a reasonable sum but, aware of the boat’s historic value, and of her likely fate in the London houseboat market, they looked around instead for somebody able to preserve and restore it.

At that time the Wooden Canal Craft Trust was busy restoring Forget me Not on a shoestring budget. However, a young couple from Bolton kept volunteering and saying “we’d love to live on a boat but we haven’t got any money”. Peter and Claire agreed to donate Hazel to the new organisation. The young couple,Maxine Bailey, ‘Legs’ Leighton and their 4 year old daughter Ceilidh, moved on board and soon started the 200 mile journey North to Ashton. By agreement with Claire and Peter a special fund was set up for Hazel’s maintenance and eventual restoration.

After an eventful journey the boat was put on the steam powered slipway at the Ashton Packet Boat Co at Guide Bridge. It quickly became clear that, rather than being just in need of repairs, we were going to have to save our pennies for a complete rebuild. Of particular concern was the state of the bottom, particularly towards the stern end where we decided to strengthen the old elm with a layer of concrete. As someone was cleaning it with a dustpan and brush he brushed a hole in the bottom! The repair lasted for 23 years.

Afloat again, Maxine and Legs set off in search of a mooring. For the next 10 years they were to be live in caretakers. The engine broke down at Macclesfield so they stayed there for a year. After that, a mooring was arranged at the Boat & Butty boatyard in Runcorn.  Maxine learned the ancient art of dowsing to track down the ever increasing amount of leaks. In order to gather funds for Hazel’s eventual restoration and maintenance the Hazel sposorship scheme was started.

In the mid 1990s we were invited to bring our boats to Portland Basin. One by one they moved, Hazel’s turn came in 1998. However, it was clear that she was becoming increasingly difficult to keep afloat. In 2000 we announced what was to be Hazel’s last trip. It was to be a return trip to Marple, towed by Forget me Not, for Hazel sponsors. After that she wasn’t to move until we were ready for the big rebuild, or rejuvenation as we preferred to call it.

Although the funds were building, the estimates for the cost of rejuvenation kept increasing too. It seemed like we’d never get there before she totally fell apart. In 2007 Hazel sank at Portland Basin just 3 days before the annual Tameside Canals Festival. With the help of the fire brigade she was raised as an event at the festival. Meanwhile we had been gathering materials ready for the big job. An oak tree from a back garden in Wythenshawe was obtained to make the stem and stern posts. Mr Mitchell of Aberdeen offered a lorryload of greenheart planks to be used for the bottom, and delivered them. Some greenheart beams, surplus from repair work in Liverpool docks, were offered very cheap, so we sent Southam and Lilith to collect them in 2010. They were then planked to produce wood for the keelson and some side planks.

In 2011 Tameside Council gave us a grant of £75,000 to restore Hazel for use as a well being boat. By then Hazel sponsors had raised £23,000 between them. It wasn’t yet enough to complete the job, but it was enough to get started. First we needed some oak trees. These were supplied, sawn 2 inches through and through, by Somerscales sawmill near Grimsby. Again, Southam and Lilith were despatched to collect them from Lincoln, the nearest waterway we could practically use. Next, we needed a skilled boatbuilder. As luck would have it, Stuart Hughes, a Mancunian living in Arizona, was free to fly in and take charge. He had trained at Dave Moss’ boatyard near Fleetwood.

The old boat was towed up the 7 locks from Ashton to Stalybridge then, rather brutally, dragged out of the water. The team of professional boatbuilders and volunteers set to work laying down a new bottom and bolting it to the new keelson. Carefully they took measurements and made patterns of everything as they removed the rotten old wood. The new oak boards were laid out and the patterns (spoiling boards) offered up to them. More serendipity occurred when it was realised that there wasn’t quite enough oak.A friend of a friend was a tree surgeon thinning some oak woodland in Cumbria.

This produced another log, which we planked in situ, along with some difficult to come by crooks. These are the bent timbers used for knees in the bow and stern. Usually they go for firewood as most people don’t want bent wood. Gradually the boat rose again out of the void that had taken its place. Planks were steamed, fitted, caulked and at last, 14 months after slipping, she was ready to be launched. Launch day was long and stressful, but also successful. It culminated in a ceilidh in a nearby church hall. Finishing and fitting out the cabins carried on through 2014 until, at last,in 2015.

Hazel was able to make her maiden trip as a well being boat. An initial training trip doubled as a trip for the television programme Barging Round Britain from Bugsworth to Ashton, starring John Sergeant. Hazel has now been at work, enabling people to enjoy spirit lifting days and nights on the waterway, for over 10 years.

Chris Leah - July 2026.

You can help to keep her running by....

• Volunteering as crew and/or as an organiser.

• becoming a Hazel sponsor.

• raising funds’ 

Organisational volunteers are needed for;-

• Boatkeeper – making sure that the boat is kept clean and well organised inside and out.

• Crew organiser - making sure that suitable crew are available for every trip or event.

• Outreach worker – finding those people who most need to spend time aboard Hazel, and keeping in touch with them even though they may not yet be ready.

• Publicist - keeping the Hazel project in the public eye via press, radio, TV, blogs, vlogs and social media. Hazel sponsor co-ordinator, keeping in touch with sponsors, tracking payments and organising special sponsors days etc.